


wrong turn, right destination

by Moransroar



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, First Time, Hostage Situations, Resolved Sexual Tension, Unsafe Sex, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, adrenaline-fuelled decisions, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:06:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26016994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moransroar/pseuds/Moransroar
Summary: They’re sitting in the car on their way back to their hotel after a long string of back-to-back meetings in Seattle, when Tony’s phone buzzes.Don’t react, but this isn’t the route back to the hotel.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 11
Kudos: 70





	wrong turn, right destination

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ErjaStark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErjaStark/gifts).



> Happy birthday baby I hope you enjoy your gifts <3

* * *

They’re sitting in the car on their way back to their hotel after a long string of back-to-back meetings in Seattle, when Tony’s phone buzzes.

_Don’t react, but this isn’t the route back to the hotel._

Tony looks across the spacious backseat to where Pepper is sitting with her legs daintily crossed, effectively shielding the phone she is holding in her lap with which she is texting her boss. She isn’t looking at him, nor at their driver. She’s clearly serious about the threat this poses.

Since Tony is sitting in the seat behind the driver he doesn’t have to hide his phone from view, and types out a quick reply.

_Positive?_

From the corner of his eye he sees Pepper look down at her phone, and a moment later the device in his hands buzzes quietly again.

_100%._

Tony glances to his side to make sure that Pepper’s buckled in, and he catches her eye for a brief moment when she looks his way. He can only hope that the one look conveys enough of what he wants to tell her, because he’s buckling out of his seat and moving forward to grab at the driver in a flash.

Pepper grabs at the seat in front of herself for leverage seconds before the impact of the blow that Tony delivers to the side of the driver’s face sends the car skittering across the road when the man loses his grip on the wheel. The car jerks with the sudden movement of the driver’s hands where he throws them up to try and protect himself, sending it sideways briefly before the driver straightens their course again.

“Gun!” Pepper shrieks when she sees the man reach into his inner jacket pocket from where she’s sitting, and the next thing she knows he’s pulling out a sleek black handgun. There’s an impossibly loud sound that has their ears ringing, and a hole in the floor of the car right beside Pepper’s feet.

Pepper has never seen Tony throw himself at someone with such force, least of all through a car, from backseat to front. She doesn’t know exactly how he does it but she assumes it’s with every ounce of strength he has in his body, and manages to wrestle the gun out of the man’s hands into the passenger side foothold, out of his reach, before slamming the stranger’s head into the steering wheel.

The horn sings a loud, shrill sound, but at least their assailant is unconscious. Now it’s just a matter of getting the car to stop.

Tony practically climbs into the front seat and shoves the man’s limp body aside, his foot off the accelerator, and grabs the gun.

And just like that, an otherwise entirely dull business trip suddenly turned into a near-assassination. But the car eventually slows to a stop, allowing both Tony and Pepper to stumble out. Pepper already contacted their business partners with shaky fingers to let them know about the attempted kidnapping, and within seconds they are surrounded by police and guided toward a car that actually does take them to their hotel.

Pepper is still shaking on their way up to their rooms.

Tony is, too, but he’s better at hiding how spooked he is from the events that just took place.

They make it up there safely, though, so at least that is something. They both silently reckon that they have had enough excitement for one night.

Both enter the suite, and Tony makes an immediate beeline for the drinks station against one wall of the room while Pepper heads for her bed to sit down heavily on the edge of the mattress. They haven’t shared a word between them, not since Tony asked him if she was okay shortly before they were put into a safe car and escorted back to their hotel the way they should have in the first place.

For Tony, it’s not the first time that there has been an attempt on his life in one way or another. For Pepper, that is a bit of a different story – although she does know that working for Tony brings with it certain risks and consequences, and she’s accepted all of them a long time ago.

Back then, all of this seemed far away, and surreal. But now that it’s happened, suddenly it isn’t much more than a hypothetical anymore. It’s real, and it’s happened, and Pepper needs to take a breather.

Tony wordlessly hands her a glass of what she assumes to be whiskey and she takes a quick sip while her boss sits down next to her.

“Quite the evening, huh?” he comments lightly, and Pepper appreciates his attempt at diffusing the obvious tension in the room.

Pepper deflates a little on a soft sigh, forcing her shoulders to relax out of their tense lock and into something that doesn’t threaten to give her a headache. Maybe she should be drinking water instead of alcohol. She takes another sip anyway.

“You can say that again,” she responds, trying to keep her tone light too, glancing in Tony’s direction. He’s looking at her in a way she can’t quite decipher at the moment. She assumes it might be worry, even if that feels a little strange.

Her suspicions are confirmed when Tony tilts his head to the side a little farther than it already was, observing her closely.

“Are you sure you’re alright? That wasn’t nothing.”

She gives him a tight-lipped smile, and puts her hand on top of Tony’s where it’s resting on his thigh.

“I didn’t get shot. That’s…something to be positive about, right?”

Tony pulls a face, but he supposes that she’s right. Things could have gone much worse. The driver’s aim could have been much better, and they would have had a completely different situation on their hands. Now, at least they are both intact, if not still pumped full of adrenaline. Pepper notices that Tony’s got a little cut on his brow, undoubtedly from his struggle with their attacker, and she reaches up to gently touch the skin around it with the hand that had previously been on Tony’s.

Tony flinches away just a bit, and Pepper lets her hand hover for a moment.

“It’s nothing bad,” she reassures him, dropping her hand again while Tony takes a big gulp of his own drink. A brief silence follows, in which Pepper studies Tony and the cut while Tony pretends to be more interested in the glass in his hand. Then, he stands.

“Well, seems like it’s time for bed, Ms. Potts. If tomorrow is going to be anything like today, we are going to need all the sleep we can get to be prepared for more intellectual exhilaration.”

Pepper knows that he is joking, since today was a total snooze, but she figures it’s best if they both head to bed early anyway. Sleep off whatever jitters hang in the air between them, making things feel unnecessarily tense. Neither of them quite know what it is, but then the realization has yet to dawn.

Tony stands by Pepper’s bed for another moment as if there is something he wants to say before he heads off, but nothing comes out, and instead he just reaches down his glass to clink the rim against Pepper’s, before turning toward the door leading into his section of the suite while loosening his tie.

The door closes, and on one end, Pepper takes the hair tie out of her ponytail, and on the other end, Tony discards his tie, pops a few buttons of his shirt, and rolls up his sleeves. But in the quiet of their respective rooms, thoughts start stirring, and before all too long the both of them realize just how close they had gotten to losing each other tonight.

Throughout their working together, they have both had incidents here and there, Tony always more often than Pepper, but they have never once been confronted so directly with the truth. Tonight, if anything had gone any differently, they could have lost not only their own lives, but each other, too. And as Tony stands with his back to the door he just closed, he realizes that he has no idea what he would do if he lost Pepper.

He has no idea how he would handle that. How he would go on. He feels as if that is something that she deserves to know, now, because if he doesn’t tell her then she might change her mind about all of this. After all, he knows damn well that this is the first time she has been in the direct line of fire like that. He can’t risk this ruining this perfectly good thing they have been building up over the past few years. He can’t lose her efficiency, the way she picks up everything he puts down, the way she knows what he’s thinking even before he has to say it. He can’t lose how she keeps the people be doesn’t want to see away from him, how she _protects_ him, even if it’s not something that he ever had to tell her he wanted her to do. Nor did he ever allow himself to consider the fact that it was her who protected him, despite the fact that he was the guy with the armor in his closet.

He’s always known that he is lucky to have her, but he’s never stopped to think about why exactly, so now that he does, it hits him like a freight train.

She is everything to him.

He turns around and yanks the door back open, about to both apologize for the interruption and explain why he can’t go to bed yet, not without telling her what she means to him, but the words don’t reach beyond his vocal chords.

Pepper is standing right there, in the doorway, her hand reaching toward where the doorknob had once been. She looks a little stunned, and for a moment they watch each other like deer caught in the headlights of a truck, before suddenly Pepper is in Tony’s arms and the man’s glass drops to the floor, spilling its contents over the hotel room’s carpet.

It doesn’t matter. Pepper’s mouth finds his and Tony knows that this is the only thing he never allowed himself to think about when it came to Pepper, but that he also, deep down, had always known that if the opportunity presented itself he would take it with both hands and never let go. Never let _her_ go.

And he’s not planning on doing so now.

He wraps his arms around her waist with the same enthusiasm with which she wraps hers around his neck to pull him into her room. They’re on the bed quickly and without further ado, with Tony settles in between her legs and her knees hike up along his waist, skirt bunching up around her hips.

The tension finally diffuses with Tony licking his way past Pepper’s lips and being met with wordless, enthusiastic consent. Tony’s mind is still wrapping around the fact that Pepper must have been thinking similar things if she turned around and met him halfway like that, but it doesn’t distract him from what he’s doing. His hands push her skirt further up and feel across the waistband of her panties, eliciting a soft sound from the woman beneath him, something that he can only guess is another encouragement.

While there is no specific intention behind it from where Tony is standing other than the fact that he wants to put his hands on her and never let go, Pepper lifts her hips off the mattress to help Tony take the panties off her. They fall to the floor where Tony drops them carelessly, returning his hands to their original exploring.

Her skin feels so soft beneath his fingertips, and the sounds she makes are so sweet, that Tony has a hard time trying to convince himself that this isn’t something he’s always dreamt of. He’s taken countless of men and women alike to bed before, has experienced dozens of meaningless nights with faceless and nameless people, but this is nothing like that. Nothing like that at all.

Tony takes his time undressing an eager Pepper, the both of them quiet aside from the noises that come unbidden, pulled out of the both of them every time the other does something they just can’t keep silent about.

Tony grinds against the inside of Pepper’s thigh and she moans in return, showing Tony exactly what she wants by wrapping her legs around his waist and digging her heels into his back, effectively bringing them closer. Tony tries to communicate that he didn’t bring protective measures, that he wasn’t prepared for their trip taking this kind of course, but Pepper dismisses any attempt with wordless reassurance.

If it isn’t clear that she wants this yet by the time she coaxes Tony’s fingers between her legs then she doesn’t know what to do or say to get Tony to believe her.

Pepper’s breath hitches when Tony’s fingers brush down her clit and to her entrance, his face slack and expression set to mesmerized when he pushes into her, gently, and watches her face for any signs of discomfort that she never shows because if anything, she just feels _good_.

Tony’s lips are parted and Pepper’s eyes are closed as he works his fingers in and out of her, perched on his elbow between her legs with his still clothed cock rubbing up against the mattress beneath him. She is undressed entirely save from the skirt she is still wearing, while Tony is still almost fully dressed. He is more concerned with her pleasure than his own – he knows he’ll get to get off later, whether that is by her hand or his own. Right now, he wants to enjoy this while it lasts – and if he isn’t careful with the way he’s grinding down, it might not last very long at all.

Thankfully, it seems Pepper has yet to find any of the patience she seems to have lost early on into whatever it is that is happening, so not long after she’s pushing at Tony’s shoulder to get him to climb off her and allow her to take off the rest of any offending articles of clothing. It allows Tony a little bit of time to do the same, so that when they meet each other halfway in a kiss again, this time it’s without any layers between them, and the shock of skin on skin hits both of them.

It’s undeniably lovely though. It has Pepper’s arms covered in goosebumps and Tony has to stop for a moment to realize that this is really happening.

They move across the bed and Pepper climbs into Tony’s lap, taking charge, much like he’s used to from her. But this time the results of it are far more pleasurable than they usually are.

She takes him in hand and wastes little time lining him up so that she can sit herself down on his cock, slowly, taking her time, watching Tony’s face with hooded eyes and parted lips. It’s almost too much, looking at Tony now, seeing the way he’s looking back at her. So, when she’s settled and he’s deep inside her, she grabs at his shoulders and encourages him to pull her closer – which he is more than happy to do.

He wraps his arms around her waist when they start moving, together as much as their position allows them to, quiet aside from the soft breaths shared between them and the little moans that every other thrust pulls out of them.

She rocks a little harder, pushes down a little faster, and Tony responds in kind by rutting up into the inviting heat of her body. There is little he can do from beneath her, but she sounds like she’s enjoying herself. The only thing that bothers him is that he can’t see her. But there is something he can change about that.

Pulling her down against him and holding onto her tightly, Tony pushes himself off the mattress and rolls the both of them over, eliciting a surprised moan on Pepper’s behalf. Now on top, he can look down at her and finds her flushed so prettily he physically cannot continue without stopping to take a good look at her.

“What?” She asks, out of breath, as she brushes a few strands of strawberry blonde out of her damp face.

He shakes his head, and kisses her softly.

Neither of them speaks again. There is nothing left to say, nothing that needs to be said. Not for as long as they move together, and the both of them are enjoying what is happening while it is happening.

Never mind what might happen after.

One of Tony’s hands finds one of Pepper’s and pins it to the pillow, next to her head. It had been fluttering almost nervously by Tony’s side and he’s noticed that she isn’t quite meeting his gaze anymore like she was moments before so he wants to give her something to ground her, even if all he can offer is a steady grip over her furiously paced pulse.

And if his palm slides up to line up with hers, and their fingers twine, well… It’s Pepper who grips his hand hard. Not him.

She knows he’s close by the way his hips stutter and his thighs tremble, and he knows she’s close by the way she squeezes her thighs against his waist and digs her heels harder into his back where she has her legs wrapped around him. They don’t need to tell each other.

Pepper reaches a hand between them and rubs herself quickly while Tony’s pace picks up, pushing himself toward his release, until Pepper suddenly tightens around him with a sharp intake of breath and he only gets a few more thrusts in before he jerks to a halt as he finally spills inside of her.

She has her head angled back, and he drops his face to her exposed neck, breath ragged. He rolls his hips slowly to get himself through the aftermath until he’s spent and all he can really do is collapse on top of her.

After she spent the majority of their night refusing to look him directly in the eye once their clothes had come off, the little bit of comfort Tony needs to know that they are still alright comes late at night, when Tony is already half asleep and she tenderly combs a gentle hand through his hair.

When Pepper wakes up, Tony is sitting on the edge of the bed, facing the window. He’s dressed in his underwear, at least, and his hair looks damp. She realizes that she must have slept through his getting out of bed and going to have a shower. By the looks of it and judging from the light that’s coming into their hotel room, it’s still early. They shouldn’t have anywhere to be for a little while longer.

Tony is looking out the window, and Pepper wonders what he sees. Or what he’s thinking about.

She sighs, a sound unbidden, and it draws Tony’s attention. He looks her way.

“Shower’s ready for you, if you need it,” he says, sounding neither calm nor particularly stressed.

She pushes herself up with her hands so that she can sit back against the headboard, and almost winces at the feeling of the remnants from the night before. It should be a nice memory, and it is, but what it left behind isn’t _particularly_ pleasant at the moment.

“I’ll need it, alright,” she sighs, but sends Tony a small, reassuring smile. She doesn’t mean to make things awkward, so she will do her best to steer clear of any road toward achieving that. When Tony smiles back, she feels like she’s on track.

“Oh I bet,” he chuckles lightly, an almost nervous thing, but doesn’t look away when Pepper shifts toward the edge of the bed to sit up next to Tony. She pulls the sheets along with her to protect her modesty, because things just really are different in the light of day. That is not to say that she regrets what they did, just…

She’s good at calculating consequences, but right now she has no idea what to expect, and it’s a little scary.

Tony’s opinion on the matter comes out loud and clear when, after a few beats of silence have passed between them, he suddenly shifts closer, tilts her chin up with the thumb and forefinger of one hand, and kisses her.

Pepper thinks she kisses back, but she isn’t sure. She’s too stunned to realize half of what is happening.

And just like that, Tony’s pulled back again, and he rises to stand. As he does, his hand falls away from her face, but not before brushing a finger across her cheek, more tenderly than she’s ever seen him do with anyone else. It leaves her equal parts puzzled and flattered.

“I’ve ordered breakfast for eight. So, better get a move on, Ms. Potts.”

He flashes her a wink that feels far more Tony’s style than anything else that has happened that morning. Or the night before, for that matter. She thinks about the way he looked at her, the way he held her, the way they held hands right up until the moment they both finished, and then some. Pepper watches Tony disappear through the door connecting their rooms, and realizes, to boot, that he stayed. He actually stayed the night, while his own bed was only a couple of feet away. That had to be one of the greatest wonders in the world, if you asked her.

She sits and ponders for a few moments longer, before picking herself up and crossing toward the ensuite.

If she didn’t know any better, she would say that he was in love.

And if he didn’t know any better, he would say that she was, too.

Neither knew ‘better’ at all, but after that night together it didn’t take them too long to find out.


End file.
